Easter Egg Roll To Raise Awareness Of Childhood Cancer

WASHINGTON (WUSA9) - The Easter Bunny was rocking out and there was also an Easter Egg Roll that looked just like the more famous one going on simultaneously across Constitution Avenue.

Only the one by the Washington Monument had fewer cameras and a fraction of the attention of the other.

"It's frustrating. It's very frustrating, said Sherri Carmical about the lack of attention to the disease that claimed her son Declan before he was even a year old.

She is here with all the others, to raise awareness of pediatric cancer. Less than 4 percent of all cancer research funding allotted by the federal government goes to children, according to the Pediatric Cancer Foundation.

"Seven children die a day, 36 are diagnosed everyday. That's more a classroom of children diagnosed with cancer every single day," said Mikelle Raffel who lost her son Ryan to Leukemia last August. He died just two days before his 6th birthday.

"There isn't a moment that goes by that I don't think about Ryan every day. But things like this are for him. And that's what keeps us going. That's our inspiration is to fight for other kids. It's what he would've wanted. Definitely," said Mike Raffel. The family lives in Fort Bluffer.

One of those kids they're fighting for is Ali. Her parents are hopeful a bone marrow transplant has cured her. She was diagnosed with the same type of Leukemia and Ryan. They two were buddies having met at Walter Reed, while undergoing treatment.

"It was hard to explain to a 7-year-old that he's passed away and had the same thing she did, and she's still here, walking around," said Ali's father Joseph Trotta who believes the disparity in research funding for childhood cancer is not fair.

"One million compared to however many billions are spent on breast cancer and the other cancers? I mean, the children, as they say, but nobody wants to bring the awareness as much to the kids," said Trotta.

The families understand that drug companies have less incentive to fund research for childhood cancer, because the market is smaller.

"While there's been advancements, there's only been one new cancer drug in the last 20 years specifically designed for children," said Sherri Carmical.

Still, they hope, that more events like this one, will have important people wearing gold to raise awareness, and the funding to fight a cruel disease.